“Red” is the second movie of the “Trois couleurs” trilogy by Kieslowski. Right from the start, the score sounds more mature, more polished than the one for “Blue”. I imagine the tone of the movie is also different, more serious.

After a neutral start of the score, “Psychoanalysis” gets my attention. “Today is my birthday” is a bolero like tune, alert and very interesting. I am almost hallway to the score and I am missing the piano. I always expect some beautiful piano melodies from Zbigniew Preisner, but “Red” sounds tense and suspenseful. The strings take the lead, mostly subdued, sounding like echoes, but very efficient in setting the mood.

The piano finally appears in “Treason”, to support a beautiful soprano voice. From there on, the score gets really interesting. “Fashion show II” is creepy and tense… ”Conversation at the theater” is beautiful and fantasy like, with a soft bolero undertone. “The rest of the conversation at the theater” has a completely different tone, darker, ominous and it’s clear that something happened in the middle of that conversation. Preisner identifies the moment very clearly.

Bolero seems to be the main theme of this score, and “Red” really comes together in the second half. Even if, like all Preisner works, it’s beautiful and interesting, and has a gorgeous final track (“L’amour au premier regard”), ”Red” doesn’t do enough to make me want to revisit it later. It is better than “Blue”, but I’m hoping “White” will save the trilogy for me.